St George Round 3&4 Wakefield Park

[Marshy]

I have sent a mail to the club re the recent conversation re clubsports.

In essence, continue as is now, with a sub class in clubsports breaking at 2000 or 2002, the last of the conventional bikes ie RWU forks, None radial brakes etc. from 2000 or 2002 continue up to rolling years as it is now.

Thanks Stu. Hopefully sanity prevails here, as Clubsport is St George's biggest class by quite a bit, and that's with the current rules. I only hope they don't ruin a good thing by capitulating to a vocal minority.

[Little Mick]

Thanks Stu. Hopefully sanity prevails here, as Clubsport is St George's biggest class by quite a bit, and that's with the current rules. I only hope they don't ruin a good thing by capitulating to a vocal minority.

ahem.... that would be me

So can anyone answer me this with hand on the heart.... what is the difference between Clubby and modern ? What is the intent?

[Marshy]

ahem.... that would be me

That's ok mate; there's always one!

So can anyone answer me this with hand on the heart.... what is the difference between Clubby and modern ? What is the intent?

Most people buy a new tracky/racebike every couple of years, and mostly the affordable ones are around 5 years old - that seems to be the magic sweet spot between price and age! As they get older than that, they don't usually get a lot cheaper, and newer ones retain more value for their first 3-4 years, then suddenly drop noticeably in price as they age beyond that. The idea is that these bikes are not the cutting-edge per se, but are still reliable and cheap. Admittedly the formula has been a bit disrupted by the GFC, and the fact that the bike manufacturers haven't updated their models in years, whereas the pre-GFC model cycle was every 2 years for a major upgrade. But we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, just because the GFC has created a dip 5 years ago that's just hitting us now.

The problem with fixing a class at a specific year model is that you never get any 'new blood' eligible, so the best/latest of the eligible models get hyper-inflated in price, waaay beyond a sensible value for their age and mileage. Think of Wetty's ZX7RRR that wins every single PCRA race meet it enters. That's $50k or more worth of bike (much more than any reasonable racebike from 1995 should have had spent on it), and no bike will EVER be faster than it!!!!

Another example (by lack of availability, rather than specific year model rules) is the 400cc class. As they don't make them any more, all the bikes are 20+ years old, done a million kays, but are still $5k to $10k; well over the value of a 5 year old, reliable, modern 600. Again, because there's no new bikes becoming eligible, the diehard few that race them are known to drop $10+ on just engine work. Madness!!

The great bit about clubsport rolling over each year is that newer, better models become eligible, that can then outperform the winners from the year before. Fourex sample, the 08 Blade is a weapon compared to the 07, and will take it to the R1s and ZX10s in unlimited next year. In the 600s, the R6 was favoured for the last couple of years, but next year the ZX6 is a much improved bike and will take the fight to the Yamahas. The CBR600 was substantially updated for 07 and is eligible this year, but nobody is seriously running them yet. As you can release a few extra ponies very cheaply and easily from the Honda (and there's not a rule saying you can't), anyone keen on running a CBR could pretty easily and cheaply have a race-winning bike, unlike the stock 600 class (not St George rules, but nobody builds a new-new 600 to just compete in St George, unlike a clubsport bike).

The other major, major advantage with a rolling annual model creep is the endless supply of new racebikes that become available to anyone wanting to run clubsport!! Also, guys that have owned a trackbike for a few years are now finding themselves eligible for a class that gives a better opportunity to score a higher result than competing with the A-grade kids with plenty of sponsorship and new bikes.

My $0.02